A federal court delivered a split decision in the Elian Gonzalez saga yesterday – rejecting his Miami kin’s request for visitation rights, but also quashing his father’s gambit to quickly end an appeal in the case.

The ruling came down as four of the Cuban castaway’s playmates and their chaperones arrived in the United States, joining a former teacher and a young cousin already here for a visit.

The Florida relatives, who returned home early yesterday after four futile attempts to see Elian in the Washington area, told supporters they won’t give up.

“We will never turn our backs on Elian – never,” great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez told a protester outside his home in Miami’s Little Havana section. “We plan to see him soon.”

The relatives asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday to give them, their lawyers and their doctors “regular access” to Elian, or to name an outside guardian.

The court – which will hear the appeal in Elian’s asylum case on May 11 – denied those requests and accepted the government’s plan for biweekly reports from their psychiatrist and social worker.

In another ruling hours later, the court also refused a request by dad Juan Miguel Gonzalez that he be immediately allowed to speak for Elian on all legal matters, which would have permitted him to drop the case.

Instead, the court put off the issue of who can speak for Elian until the May 11 hearing, while approving Juan Miguel’s request to enter the legal tug-of-war over his son.

“It’s up in the air … The inevitable decision as to who represents Elian, who speaks for Elian, has yet to be decided,” said Richard Sharpstein, a hardball defense lawyer just hired by the Miami family.

Sharpstein plans to put a new request before the court today – asking again for an independent guardian as part of “sanctions” he says the government owes for “kidnapping” Elian.

The first-grader – who was seized at gunpoint from the Miami family and reunited with his dad on Saturday – is staying with his father, stepmother and baby half-brother at the Wye River Conference Center in Maryland. He is under court order to remain on American soil while the case plays out.

Four of his Cuban pals, dressed in red coats and each accompanied by a parent – plus Elian’s pediatrician – arrived at Dulles Airport at 4:20 p.m.

They are expected to stay about two weeks, joining teacher Agueda Fleitas and cousin Yasmany Betancourt.

Elian – who was rescued after a boat wreck that killed his mother and 10 others fleeing Cuba in November – was said to be in good spirits.

Attorney General Janet Reno said Elian “has had a lot of bad luck along the way [but] he’s still resilient, he’s still strong, he’s still a smiling little boy.”

She sidestepped the question of whether the Justice Department would try to set up a meeting between Elian and his Miami relatives.

“I can’t imagine that Marisleysis will be out of his life,” Reno said of the 21-year-old cousin who cared for Elian after he was plucked from the ocean. “You could look at them and see a connection.”

Meanwhile, Miami’s City Hall was in turmoil in the wake of Saturday’s raid.

Mayor Joe Carollo – irate because Police Chief William O’Brien didn’t give him advance warning of the feds’ action – fired City Manager Donald Warshaw for refusing to ax O’Brien. Carollo does not have the power to fire the city’s top cop.